Sigerson Cup: James McCarthy 'proud' of his MTU Cork side in battling defeat against UL

MTU Cork manager James McCarthy was full of praise for his team despite a five-point loss to University of Limerick in the opening round of the 2026 Sigerson Cup on Wednesday.

On a very cold night, MTU Cork’s bid to start on a winning note didn’t transpire despite their best efforts.

They lost on a scoreline of 0-17 to 1-9 despite missing 13 players due to a number of different reasons.

The Rebel outfit were one point to the good at half-time only to register four points in the second half. 

“Delighted with the performance and the attitude, but we are gutted as we felt we had a chance at half-time,” the former Castlehaven county-winning boss said post-match.

“We were looking for a performance and we got one, was it good enough to win the game? No, not tonight. We did have some great passages of play and got some great scores. It was just a few turnovers and UL punished us on the counter-attack. They are a very good team.

“We never gave up and we were still in the game going into the closing stages. We certainly didn’t lack effort, they died on their feet.” 

MTU Cork were always going to be the underdogs against a UL side who won the Division 1 football league title at the end of last year.

The chances weren’t helped by the absence of 13 players including Ed Myers, Dara Sheedy, Bryan Hayes and Seán Dore to name just a few.

“Every one of the 13 lads that were unavailable to play would have had a good chance of starting,” McCarthy says.

“That’s not taking away from the players that played tonight. It was just unfortunate, just bad luck, it wasn’t just one thing, it was inter-county tied, sickness, injuries and holidays. 

"I am hoping to have three or four back for next week. They will have to fight for their place after tonight’s performance.

“Some of the players were coming together for the first time tonight. Given we were down so many players, I was worried that it would hurt the performance but it didn’t."

It’s now do-or-die for MTU Cork next week against Ulster University. 

“It’s knockout football. We will go into that confident of winning. It’s all about building on this performance against UL and try to score a bit more.” McCarthy ended.

UCC were also in action on Wednesday night in the Sigerson Cup, they defeated ATU Sligo in Edenderry on a scoreline of 3-18 to 0-15. Conor Daly was the chief scorer with 2-4.

Paul O’Keeffe’s side will take on Queen's University in Round 2A next week.